Abstract:

The current study investigated the way in which gender of a character and the presence or absence of a male stereotype affect the perceived masculinity of said character. Forty undergraduates from Oregon State University completed a questionnaire rating the masculinity of one of four possible characters – one male without the stereotype present, one male with the stereotype present, one female without the stereotype present, and one female with the stereotype present. As hypothesized, it was found that the presence of a male stereotype significantly influenced the perceived masculinity of the character, as the masculinity ratings were higher for those characters with the stereotype present than those characters with no stereotype activation. There was no main effect for character gender, however, nor was there an interaction effect between stereotype activation and character gender. The results produced by this research can be used to develop studies to further investigate the effects of stereotype activation.